Davis v. Laws

27 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 193, 1928 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1168
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County
DecidedJuly 24, 1928
StatusPublished

This text of 27 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 193 (Davis v. Laws) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Laws, 27 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 193, 1928 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1168 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1928).

Opinion

Shook, J.

This cause, which is an action to quiet title, comes on for hearing upon plaintiff’s demurrer to the answer.

The admitted facts are that James Bradford died on December 25, 1875, seized of certain real estate. His last will and testament was admitted to probate by the Probate Court of Hamilton County, on January 3, 1876. Item IV of said will, which is the subject of this controversy, reads as follows:

“I hereby will and devise to my daughter, Eleanora Bradford, Number 44 Fifth Street, being part of lot 168, and sixteen and a half feet in front of Fifth, and thirty-three and a half feet west of Walnut, to be held by her during her natural life, and at her death to her heirs at law in fee.”

The life tenant, Eleanora Bradford, possessed and enjoyed said property during the term of her natural life. She died January 31, 1927, without issue of her body, never having been married.

The said Eleanora Bradford left surviving her, in addition to plaintiff herein, the defendants Florence B. Laws, Hannah B. Neff, Blanche L. Bradford, her sisters, and Hannah B. Armstrong, daughter of Josephine B. Davis, deceased sister of Eleanora Bradford. Plaintiff is the sister of Hannah B. Armstrong.

The testator left surviving him seven children, two sons and five daughters. One son died in 1887 and the other in 1897, leaving no children surviving.

During the lifetime of said Eleanora Bradford, upon the 10th day of May, 1907, the property referred to in Item IV of her last will and testament was leased to defendant, The United Cigar Stores Company, for a period of twenty-three years, ending May 31, 1930, by proceedings in this court under statutes of Ohio authorizing the [195]*195leasing of an entailed estate. Thereafter, on July 1, 1925, the said property so subject to said lease to The United Cigar Stores Company, was again leased to defendant, Milton Silverglade, by like proceedings had in this court, for the full term-of fifteen years on and after July 1, 1925.

In this cause Eleanora Bradford was plaintiff and Eleanor Bradford Davis, plaintiff herein, Blanche L.' Bradford, Florence B. Laws, Hannah B. Neff, C. Gordon Neff, and Hannah B. Armstrong, were defendants.

On March 18th, 1920, in the Probate Court of Hamilton County, Ohio, this plaintiff was designated by the life tenant under this will, Eleanora Brodfard, as the sole heir at law by virtue of Section 8598 of the General Code.

Plaintiff claims the entirety of said estate, by reason of the fact that she was designated as the, sole heir at law of said life tenant in said proceedings.

The defendant, Hannah B. Armstrong, in her answer claims to be entitled to an undivided one-eighth interest in said real estate, as the daughter of Josephine B. Davis, sister of said Eleanora Bradford.

The defendants Blanche L. Bradford and Hannah B. Neff, each claim an undivided one-fourth interest in this property as sisters of decedent Eleanora Bradford.

The demurrer is directed against the answer of Florence B. Laws, who claims to have an estate, or interest, in this property adverse to plaintiff. The said answer of Florence B. Laws states four defenses. As the determination of this demurrer will affect substantially the rights of the other defendants, this opinion is addressed likewise to them.

Succinctly stated, the first defense claims that under" this will said defendant and her sisters and brothers were the heirs at law of Eleanora Bradford and that the remainder in said property, subject to the life estate so devised to Eleanora Bradford, became at once vested in this defendant and her sisters and brothers, by reason of the fact that they became entitled to the next estate of inheritance in said property after the death of the life tenant.

For her second defense the said Florence B. Laws, claims that the proceedings in the Probate Court, designating the plaintiff as their heir at law of Eleanora Bradford, were [196]*196taken by the life tenant without notice to said defendant, and with no opportunity to be heard, and that plaintiff herein, so designated in 1920 in the Probate Court of Hamilton County, was not the heir at law of Eleanora Bradford under the proper construction .of Item IV of the will of James Bradford, deceased.

For her third defense she claims that Section 8598 of the General Code of Ohio, purporting to authorize the designation of an heir, is unconstitutional and void in that it attempts to take away from said defendant certain vested property rights under the will of her father, in contravention of Articles 5 and 14 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

For her fourth defense she claims that a petition was filed by the life tenant Eleanora Bradford in this court in 1907, under Revised Statutes 5864 et seq. (now General Code 11926 et seq.) (proceedings had to lease the entailed estate) alleging that this defendant, Florence B. Laws, and the other alleged heirs at law of the said Eleanora Bradford, were all the persons interested in the estate, or who might become interested therein, as remaindermen. These facts were admitted in the answer of defendant. It is the contention of defendant that the court found in effect that the said Eleanora Bradford, deceased, this plaintiff and this defendant and others were all of the persons in being who were interested in the said estate, or who, by the terms of said will, thereafter became interested as heirs, reversioners or otherwise. That the said decree determined that this defendant was an heir at law of the said Eleanora Bradford, that said fact is res adjudieata, and that the designation by Eleanora Bradford in 1920 of the plaintiff as her sole heir at law is of no force or effect to entitle plaintiff to the entire fee of this property.

In passing upon the demurrer to this answer the court has carefully analyzed the numerous authorities cited by counsel representing the various parties and has considered many others bearing upon this subject matter. We are bearing in mind the valuable interests affected and realize the responsibility of this, court in fixing rights which add another seven-eighths of this estate to the [197]*197plaintiff’s original one-eighth, thereby depriving defendants of the same.

We will pass upon the legal questions in the order of the defenses therein.

First.

(a) Who were the heirs at law of Eleanora Bradford, according to the expressed intention of the testator in Item IV of his last will and testament?

(b) Did they acquire a vested remainder in said estate, which came into being at the time of the probating of this will on January 3, 1927?

At the outset we state two controlling principles: It is the duty of this court to discover from the paper writing in controversy, to-wit, the last will and testament of James Bradford, deceased, his intention.

Also, there can be no heirs at law of the living (nemo est haeres viventis) ; therefore, the date upon which this expression in Item IV is to be applied is that of the death of the life tenant, Eleanora Bradford, which occurred in January, 1927.

Eleanora Bradford Davis was appointed and designated the heir at law of Eleanora Bradford, by virtue of an act now known as Section 8598, General Code, passed April 29, 1854 (52 Ohio Laws, 78), which section reads:

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Bluebook (online)
27 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 193, 1928 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-laws-ohctcomplhamilt-1928.